Brookfield is selling Australian-based construction firm Multiplex to Japan’s “big five” construction giant, Obayashi Corporation, for $US650 ($A924) million. We looked into its sustainability claims, and if these translate to its Australian practices, the company might be seen as a pacesetter.
According to recent announcements, the Japanese Obayashi Corporation intends to use its acquisition of Multiplex to increase its stakes in the Australian, Canadian and UK markets. It already had a stake in Australia’s property market through its partnership with construction firm Built, forming the Built-Obayashi Joint Venture in 2016, which allowed both builders to compete for large projects above $200 million.
Buildings the venture worked on include NSW’s Atlassian Central and Walker Corporation’s 6 and 8 Parramatta Square.
But it’s the Japanese firm’s ESG goals that are strongly based on the UN’s sustainable development goals that strike the biggest note for The Fifth Estate. In recent years, it updated its 2050 “green” targets, which prioritised recycling, low carbon and respect for the natural world. The new 2050 sustainability vision now includes consideration for society and economy alongside nature, saying “achieving a balance between the three” is essential to realising “sustainability of the planet”.
Its current 2040 to 2050 goals include achieving zero carbon emissions for the entire group, building spaces designed for wellbeing and creating a sustainable supply chain.
Its 2025 ESG report says the company aims to be carbon neutral by 2050 and that it was on track for its carbon emission reduction targets for 2030.
Since 2019, it has reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 46.2 per cent, through renewable energy, introducing electric industrial vehicles like backhoes and dump trucks, as well as using diesel fuel alternatives like renewable diesel and biodiesel.
It claims to have also reduced Scope 3 emissions by 27.5 per cent through using low-carbon construction materials such as low-carbon concrete, wooden structures and interiors, and resource recycling and reusing structural materials.
The company adopts a US trademarked “Circular Timber Construction” program that utilises plants and cultivates the timber it uses in structures and interiors. It claims that it’s making it easier to ensure a complete and sustainable cycle for the use of domestic timber, overseeing everything from planting to processing to downstream carbon from construction, power generation and reuse and recycling.
Among its other achievements, it says, are utilising Zero Energy Building (ZEB) Certifications, a building energy rating system popular in South Korea, Japan and the EU on all its builds, and meeting the WELL Certification.
Some other notable green achievements include taking part in the consortium that launched Japan’s first large scale commercial offshore wind power generation project, which generates about 140 megawatts of power and operating 28 solar power plants, two onshore wind farms and two woody biomass plants themselves.
In nature, this giant company says it tries to improve biodiversity on its sites with its own tool.
And it even has a track record on gender diversity, though far more modestly, with goals to reach 15 per cent female engineers by 2030 and 10 per cent of women in managerial positions.
